Dresden Files Reread - Summer Knight Chapter 1

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Harry meets Billy at Lake Meadow Park to investigate a rain of toads. It's very hot, and Harry's not in a great mood even before one of said toads lands directly on his head. Harry tells Billy to collect some of them, because he needs to check if they're real - if they're not, it's probably just a fairy playing a prank, but if they are, that means reality itself is somehow out of whack, which could be very serious indeed. This handily serves to remind us that fairies are a thing in this setting, which is important since they haven't been mentioned since Harry summoned Toot Toot in the middle of Storm Front, and they're gonna be kind of a big deal this book. Billy has questions about the 'The toads might not be real' thing, but Harry shuts him down hard, saying that he hasn't slept or eaten a hot meal any time recently and he's not in the mood to teach. There's also an old lady with a shopping cart, but we'll get to that in a minute. 

Billy invites Harry to come play Arcanos with him and the other Alphas. Based on his description, I'm guessing this is along the same basic lines as Pathfinder, but as far as I can tell, Arcanos itself is not a real game. He describes how they're working against a Council of some kind in the current campaign, and how there's spells and demons and dragons, which Harry almost reasonably says sounds too much like work. Billy doesn't seem terribly surprised, and uses this as an entry point to express that he's concerned about how much time Harry's spending lurking in the basement, even allowing as it's valid to be stressed about the vampire war and the white council coming to town. Harry denies knowledge of either the war or the Council, and I can't figure out if we're still doing the "The White Council has a whole thing about secrecy" thing or if Harry's just cranky and doesn't think Billy, specifically, whom he perceives as basically a regular civilian, werewolfism notwithstanding,  should know about it. Harry also insists he's gone out and socialized plenty of times, like when he went to a football game with the Alphas. Unfortunately that was six months ago, so this kinda undercuts his argument. Billy lays out, over the course of some back and forth, that Harry doesn't answer the phone or the door anymore, isn't at his office, and apparently hasn't shaved, showered, gotten a haircut, or done laundry in longer than is generally considered socially acceptable. Come to think of it, how does Harry do laundry? Billy says "gone out to do laundry", and if we take that as accurate, he's not handwashing clothes in his sink or using a copper boiler on his hearth and then line drying them in the back yard, which would have been my first thought, but I don't think he can go to a laundromat without risking messing up the machines - even if the washers and dryers, which have relatively few electronic parts, would cooperate, there are other things in there that he'd probably break, and he tends to try to avoid that kind of thing. 

Billy also swung by Harry's office, and informs him that he's a week out from getting evicted if he doesn't pay the rent on it, and that he took the (admittedly fairly extreme) liberty of scheduling Harry a 3pm appointment that day with one Ms. Sommerset. Harry's a normal amount of upset that Billy like, went through his mail, checked his answering machine, and returned phone calls on his behalf, and insists that he's fine, that the last thing he needs is to worry about other people getting hurt for associating with him, and that he doesn't need help. 

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So the old lady with the shopping cart. As they're having this back and forth, and dropping a few other pieces of information, like that the Reds - wait, they keep calling them the "reds", and most of the conflict between them and the White Council is repeatedly described as a "cold war", we should revisit that - are moving more "muscle" into town, we're periodically reminded of this old lady with a shopping cart who's the only other person at the park just now. It's worth reviewing the passage yourself to see how it's interspersed, but we're updated on this old lady and her cart three times before someone tries to kill Harry. A pair of black-clad humans in the bed of a pickup truck open fire on him with what are described as  automatics "in the mini-Uzi tradition", which is a really excellent way to give the reader a good idea of what they should be picturing and what the threat level is without locking yourself into a set of technical specifications which will distract and irritate the gun nerds if you accidentally violate them. Harry gets his shield up, and deflects all the bullets, although it stresses his bracelet, and he's concerned that something might ricochet and hit a bystander. After a few seconds, his attackers have to reload, and he takes the opportunity to use his force ring (we get a reminder of how it works) to strike back at them, although he does it at an angle, because catching them full on could kill them, which would violate the first Law of Magic (of which we are also reminded). One of the gunmen is disarmed and thrown from the truck, the other isn't, but loses the sunglasses and ski mask that are hiding his face, revealing him to be in his mid-teens at the oldest. He takes the magical assault remarkably in stride (indicating that either he's fought wizards before or he's high, although neither possibility is raised explicitly), finishes reloading, and starts shooting at Harry again. At which point, of course, the old lady with the shopping cart reveals herself to be no such thing and produces a sawed off shotgun. With her on one side and the gunman on the other, Harry's shield bracelet can't protect him from both, and he figures he's pretty much dead, and likely Billy along with him, indicating, I note here, that he remembered Billy was there but apparently completely forgot that he has powers of his own. Billy did not forget that he has powers - he strips out of his sweatpants and t-shirt, shifts, and bites the shotgun lady's hand, causing her to drop the gun. Unfortunately, she's a ghoul, so she promptly sprouts claws and teeth of her own, and slashes Billy's face. He backs off a little and circles, timing it so her back is to Harry at the same time the gunman runs empty again. Harry seizes the moment, picks up the shotgun, and tells Billy to move, which prompts the ghoul to turn around, allowing Harry to fire the shotgun into her stomach. Not a fatal injury for a ghoul, but enough to get her to flee to the pickup truck, from whence all of their attackers flee. 

Billy observes that he didn't see the claws coming, which is a sharp and deliberate contrast to Harry's "I don't need help, I won't tell you what's going on" routine. Billy is used to working with a group, and not used to putting up any kind of front. The first thing he did, actually, after this fight (well, and after putting his clothes back on), was ask what the shotgun lady was, and the second thing was to do this error analysis, out loud, without making any kind of big deal about it. What went wrong in this fight? He didn't see the claws coming. This is a reminder to everyone he's working with, even though in this case that's just Harry, to be mindful of the claws the next time they fight a ghoul, and not to assume everything they're fighting that looks human is. It also indicates that this was not a problem of judgement, timing, coordination, or anything else that might need further work or discussion between now and the next patrol. Notably, there's no "I should have seen that", "I'm so stupid", anything like that. Billy doesn't see any shame, or anything to apologize for, in being caught off-guard by an unfamiliar threat, he's just noting it out loud for his own and other's future reference. The Alphas probably make such observations to each other all the time, it's part of what makes them an effective team and Billy and effective leader, and it stands out next to Harry's refusal to even acknowledge that he needs friends. 

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Harry also tells Billy that the ghoul was probably from the LaChaise clan, which I am never, ever going to spell correctly without looking it up. They work for the Red Court, and Harry has caused them some unspecified headaches in the past. I'd have to check, but I don't think any prior conflict with ghouls is in the short stories, so these headaches may remain a proper noodle incident, if not a terribly mysterious one. And that Billy can let the toads go, because the one Harry was just kind of holding during that entire fight pooped in his hand. Poor toad. That means something is seriously Up in the magical world, a conclusion which is graphically reinforced as they get back in the car, and the light rain of toads becomes an absolute (if highly localized) toad storm, accompanied by a nauseating disruption in the normal flow of magic. 

So there we are, Summer Knight is underway. The other post I'm working on is still in progress, and I haven't spontaneously summoned up the energy to talk about Wheel of Time in the last *checks notes* four days. I still can't usefully commit to any kind of posting schedule, but expect to see something from me within a week, unless something else Happens. Until then, be gay, do crimes, and read all the things!